Disney cast members are the heart and soul of the theme parks. Their daily interactions with guests are a key part of the differentiation of the Disney experience. Coming out of the 2020 closure, there was a large cast member turnover. Even now, Disney is still recovering from this period which has had a long-term impact on the guest experience cast members deliver. We heard directly from Disney leadership about their sweeping plans to improve the guest experience.
During a recent business update, we heard from the president of the resort and his leadership team about their focus areas for the future. One key area they spoke about was hospitality and changes to the cast member experience to further this goal. This is the first report about these changes. We’ll dive into everything we learned. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including the key Disney ride closures in March and changes to park hopping at Disneyland.
READ MORE – Rides Disney Almost Built But Didn’t (And Why They Never Happened)
Disney Cast Member Changes Rolling Out Now
Disneyland Resort President Thomas Mazloum and some of his leadership team met with about a dozen members of the media, including Mickey Visit, to share more on his current focus for improvement at the resort. We have already covered some of what he shared around plans for attracting young families, changes to park hopping and park reservations, the delay of a ride closure, and aims for changes to security improvements.
Mazloum shared with us that they are analyzing every aspect of the guest experience to simplify the visit process. He also spoke to his plans to bring hospitality back into every interaction at the resort. He believes that starts with the cast members.
Disney Ride Closure ALERTS, Major Changes, Secrets Revealed
Get alerts on closures, park changes, exclusive discounts, and free printables. Trusted by 100,000+ Disney fans & planners.
While the Disney theme parks have an incredible slate of attractions and experiences, it is the cast members who breathe life into the offerings and create the real Disney “magic”. This need for the cast members to be a key driver of the success of the offering goes all the way back to Walt Disney. He is quoted as saying “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”
The 2020 closure of the Disneyland Resort theme parks had a real impact on the operations of the park in the following five years. The theme parks were closed to guests for 412 days and during that period, cast members were furloughed. Many chose to retire or not return to the parks. The over a year-long interruption meant that the parks would need to staff up with new talent.
We heard from Brenai De Haro, Director, Operations & Integration at Disneyland, who manages guest feedback and cast member training. She brought detailed information about the current state of the cast member experience at the resort and their plans to improve hospitality for guests. The following information is from her presentation. While direct quotes weren’t allowed, I am able to paraphrase the information.
Looking at the makeup today, 60% of the Disneyland Resort cast members were hired after the 2021 reopening. Many of the cast members being hired at the time were new to Disney and even new to the hospitality and service industries. She said many had never even experienced a Disney theme park and guests could feel that.
Many of these cast members were hired in a hurry to be able to staff up during the reopening period. Training sessions were held in a condensed time frame. The typically emotional and high energy Traditions class that teaches Disney history and cast member fundamentals was held virtually in a condensed time frame. The trainings had to focus more on safety and health protocols than hospitality. They had to focus on distancing rules and rapidly evolving reopening requirements.
Rather than an emphasis on the guest experience, they had to hit one focal point. Safety. It was all about masks, plexiglass screens, and distancing. De Haro grimaced as she reflected on what was a very difficult time for the resort.
She reflected on her own Traditions class eighteen years ago and the emotion it evoked. She spoke to how the class is meant to show what it means to be a cast member. That is really hard to do virtually.
Thomas Mazloum shared details about his experience arriving at Disneyland. He laid out three focus areas of a strategic plan for the future of the Disneyland Resort to drive the executive team’s focus.
- Who is your customer today and are they happy? Do they plan to come back?
- How are we pulling in new audiences?
- Cast Members – Where do we hire them? How do we train them? How do we support them? Who are the leaders of the cast members?
Mazloum spoke about the last point. He emphasized the importance of the cast members. He said the cast members are the glue that holds everything together. He said that from all of the comments and emails that he receives, there is one through line for why people are inclined to come to Disneyland. They come to Disneyland because of how the place makes them feel and often that is in direct connection to a specific interaction with a cast member.
De Haro then spoke to the specific improvements they are working on around cast members at the resort. She shared that they are investing in a stronger emphasis in cast member training.
She said that training needed to evolve generally. She also specifically said that cast members who were onboarded during the reopening needed to be given the necessary tools to provide the guest service that Disney is known for. While Disney began this retraining effort in earnest a year ago, this is the first time that we have heard Disney speak about the effort.
READ MORE – These 10 Disney Rides Are Far Better Than The Ones They Replaced
Here are the key changes being made with an eye toward improved hospitality for guests. The goal is to embed hospitality in the culture. She said that they have seen other companies try to roll out a smile policy and have seen it go completely wrong. Disney wants to avoid this by so deeply embedding hospitality into the culture. She said this is who we are and they have a commitment to get it right.
Extend Length of Traditions Training
First, she spoke about their move to extend Traditions. Any cast member that works anywhere at the resort goes through the day one of the Traditions programs. Then, all of the operations cast members go through a second full day of trainings called “Step Into the Magic”.
She shared that over the past year, they have taken the second day of the training and extended it into two full in addition to day one of Traditions for onboarding cast members. They found that they could more successfully role model the behavior they wanted from cast members and to prepare them for guest interactions in this setting. They were able to better set an expectation of being warm and approachable. She said they are still working on how to best use all the tools in their kit to set the expectations.
Part of that comes from building excitement among the actual training facilitators. She said that their love of Disney is contagious.
Retrain Cast Members Who Were Hired During Reopening
The art of hospitality is about how you make people feel. She said it is challenging to deliver that as a scaled business. How do you make sure that cast members have tools to make guests feel important? Every single moment matters.
She pointed to the working leads in the theme parks and to those 60% of cast members who started after reopening. She said they are actively doing programmatic work to retrain and bring hospitality into their daily trainings.
She said that they are actively bringing leads into training and giving them new development opportunities. She said that they are the heartbeat of the operation. They make sure that every person knows their role in the show and that they can deliver on that.
The cast members who did not get the full Traditions experience during reopening are now getting that training infused into their daily trainings. They have focused on retraining leads and are now circling back to other cast members in specific hot spots.
There are also other ongoing efforts to better inform and train cast members. She gave the example of trainings on menus. She said let’s make sure the cast members have tasted the menu to be able to speak to it. She acknowledged that it is frustrating when someone hasn’t tasted it and can’t make comments about the food. She said they want the cast members to be equipped to answer questions and gave the example of menu training at Flo’s V8 Cafe when the menu received a recent overhaul.
She shared that as part of this specific focus on servicing young families they are rolling out refreshed training to cast members in key areas to be able to best serve these guests. She said that guests come to Disneyland for the human connection. They want to help make cast members realize that everything they do can help bring hospitality for guests. She said that every time there are anticipated shifts in guest dynamics, like this upcoming Bluey launch and kids focus, they roll out additional training and reminders for teams. For instance, she said that if a cast member sees a family juggling trays, how do you help service them? A cast member could jump in and help bring the food over for them. She said that the small hospitality touches are really what makes this place special. This is part of their effort around attracting young families.
They want to make sure that it is clear how critical the cast member is in shaping the guest experience. She said that they focus on empowering cast members.
Reintroduce SERVICE Model For Hospitality
They used to teach the SERVICE model to all cast members. It was something cast members were expected to memorize to speak to the flow of service.
Just before the closure in 2020, they put the model in the vault because they felt they didn’t need it anymore. Now, they have decided they again need to bring this simplified view of how to connect with guests back into the conversation.
De Haro said they decided to dust off the model to retrain leaders. She said it is an easy tool for leaders to remember. Many now carry it around in their lanyard. How can they use the model to create a baseline of hospitality?
Created 13 Statements of Intention Around Cast Members
Next, they came together with cast member leaders to create 13 intentions around the cast member experience. They had seen a gap in the cast member experience develop over the last year and a half.
They talked about what they want it to feel like to be a cast member. They discussed what the standards they can hold cast members to. She said that some are simple in nature, but writing them down was important. They had listed warm greeting as an example, but gave the clarification that a warm greeting at the front gate looks quite different from a warm greeting at the Haunted Mansion.
The standards range from being friendly and approachable to anticipating needs and going beyond what is expected. The final one is to have fun because when cast members are having fun, the guests have fun too.
Thomas Mazloum said that focusing on people who lead the cast members is equally important as the training for the cast members themselves. Those leaders need to understand what it means to be in the shoes of a cast member so that they have the empathy and understanding of what it takes to do that job.
Create Proactive Leaders
They ended by spelling out three specific focuses from leaders in training to create a hospitality environment.
1 – Solve for the guest
Cast members are asked to zoom out and understand what is happening around them.
While describing her goals around training, she mentioned a specific story. She said that she was walking through Fantasyland and saw a little girl crying because she didn’t want to get out of a stroller. She was pleased to see a cast member working at the entrance of an attraction bend down, pull out a Rapunzel sticker and give it to her. It completely deescalated the situation with the child and brought a smile to her face. She said she also saw the parents silently word thank you to the cast member when passing. These are the experiences that Disney wants to create even more of with their teams.
She gave another example that bird poop could ruin someone’s day. Disney can’t prevent the poop, but they can give you a new t-shirt. They want you to enjoy your day.
2 – Look for and acknowledge the good
She said that sometimes operators are focused on what could go wrong. Now, they want to encourage cast members to look for the good. She spoke to complimenting a cast member who was smiling and making it clear to guests that they were happy to be there.
3 – Leading in uncertain situations
Earlier this year, the Disneyland Monorail was stuck for a couple of hours. After the incident, one of the guests told a Guest Relations leader that they had missed their train. The leader bought them an Uber and train ticket to get back on their travel planning.
De Haro said that this turned into a moment for role modeling. She said that after the leader bought the ticket and Uber, some Guest Relations cast members pulled aside that leader and said they were surprised they were able to do something like that for a guest. This turned into a learning moment to show that it is their job to make something right by a guest in uncertain situations. This was a teachable moment and demonstrated how hospitality should be applied to guests.
She said that they have the lofty goal to make each day for guests flawless. Even if they can’t do that, they are able to empower cast members to make each moment matter.
There is already a lot happening right now that is working with cast members. Thomas Mazloum shared some impressive stats about where cast members at Disneyland are today.
He said that 74% of the 36,000 cast members say they intend to stay at least five years or more with Disney. He said that they take this as a positive indicator that they are doing something right around pay, benefits, and training. He also said that they are able to fill two out of three management or salaried leader roles with hourly cast members.
Finally, he looked to the current turnover stats for Disneyland. He said that outside of Disney in the hospitality industry, employee turnover is 40-60% annually. He said that Disneyland sits at just 15%.
We are encourage to hear that Disneyland is investing in their cast members. We completely agree that these cast members make the magic and that their work has the ability to completely change a Disney vacation.
What do you think of the current Disneyland cast member experience? Is there any comment you would make? Share any story of a cast member interaction that you still remember with us in the comments below or on social media.
Don’t Miss the Latest Disney News
Don’t miss the latest Disneyland and Disney World news from Mickey Visit. Join the FREE Mickey Visit newsletter that over 100k readers receive every single week. Mickey Visit is here to help you save money and experience more during your Disney and Universal vacation. See the Mickey Visit guide to Disneyland and the Mickey Visit guide to Disney World for tips.
